I've been a Skarner main since season 4, I have over 500k mastery points on the purple boi and I've also made a shitty montage of him back in early season 7. So I think I have legitimate grounds to say that this champion is in a god awful spot at the moment and needs to be either buffed or reworked (properly). And there's a lot of people complaining that Skarner has gone 5 years without a skin, but what's the point in even spending money on making a skin for him if NOBODY is going to buy it, let alone play the champion.
Skarner's identity has been such a mess over the past few years that I doubt Riot knows what he's supposed to be, is he a juggernaut? a tanky vanguard? a diver? It really doesn't matter because he sucks at excelling in any of those categories. His damage is a joke, his gap closers rely on movement speed which can easily be negated by destroying his tiny ass shield. Speaking of which, his W is the closest ability he has to soak up damage, which is a very important aspect of being a tank. All champions in Skarner's category have these types of abilities that allow them to tank damage, Ill list a few.
Malphite: Bonus armor and Passive shield
Maokai: Passive Heal
Ornn: Bonus MR and Armor from passive + stats gained from forged items.
Sion: Bonus HP from W + shield
Leona: W armor and mr
Warwick: Damage reduction on E + Healing
Garen: W Damage/Tenacity reduction
Darius/Illaoi/Aatrox/Rhaast: healing
What does Skarner have? One tiny ass shield that scales on health, and it's a pretty unreliable one at that. For a melee champion with no mobility that relies on engaging, Skarner dies incredibly fast in teamfights. Every game just feels the same, attempt an engage, get rooted by Morgana, die, respawn, attempt an engage, get Ahri charmed, die, respawn, get stunned during your flash + ult, die. Meanwhile, you can play other champions like Malphite, Ornn, or Warwick, who can engage just fine while cc'ing multiple and can not only tank a lot of damage but also deal damage as well, then there's Skarner who can't really do any of these things well, has to somehow make it to melee range using the power of walking slightly fast if you want to do anything useful, plus it's a single target cc ability.
There's just no reason to play Skarner anymore, there's just so much peal and disengage in the game and Skarner can't really do anything about it. I can't really name a single strength Skarner has over other junglers except maybe the E > Ult > Stun combo which is fun n all, but that's about it. Something really needs to be done about this champion, and a skin isn't going to help any of it.
